A New Poll Shows Donald Trump Up By 7 Points:
Former President Donald Trump is up by seven points in a new Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll against President Joe Biden in the latest poll.
Forty-seven percent preferred Donald Trump compared with 40% for Biden.
The poll was conducted May 17-18 of 2,004 registered voters.
This spread is similar to the shock Washington Post/ABC poll from earlier this month that put Trump at 44% to 48% over Biden. The Real Clear Politics average of polls puts Trump up by 1.4% over Biden, with a 44.2% to 42.8% margin.
Questions About Biden
Questions about Biden’s age and mental sharpness abound.
Only 32% told the Washington Post/ABC News poll that Biden had the mental sharpness needed to be president.
The fact he would be 86 years old at the end of a second term likely will be a frequent talking point in the 2024 campaign.
They are eating into Biden’s popularity advantage over Trump. A WPA Intelligence survey released this week found that only 21% of Independents favored Trump.
DeSantis Ties With Biden
The poll showed Biden tied with DeSantis at 42% each.
“DeSantis is announcing in a much more difficult environment than a few months ago, but most voters believe he can still mount a serious challenge,” Mark Penn, the co-director of the Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll, told The Hill. “Seems as though [Trump] vs. Alan Bragg or CNN is a [favorable] match to him. Let’s see how the primary develops with [Republican] opponents like [DeSantis] or [Tim] Scott.”
DeSantis trails Trump for the Republican nomination in the polls by a wide margin. With DeSantis set to formally declare his candidacy in the coming week, it likely will introduce a new volatility into the race. The Florida governor will put Trump on trial in a way that none of his opponents have until now.
Trump has been able to shrug off the Russia hoax, the E. Jean Carroll verdict, and the Stormy Daniels indictment as witch hunts by his political opponents.
DeSantis will put his adherence to Conservative principles as president on trial. Trump could be hurt should he shift to the Left on issues like abortion to distinguish himself.
If DeSantis puts Trump’s handling of the COVID pandemic and his having kept Anthony Fauci in place, it could harm the perception of Trump among GOP voters.
Biden’s Job Approval Rating Remains Low
The Real Clear Politics average pegs Biden’s approval rating at 41.4% approval with a 53.8% disapproval.
The president has gotten poor marks on the economy. A recent Gallup poll put American confidence in Biden’s ability to handle the economy at 35%.
“Polls and pundits have underestimated Joe Biden his entire life, and he’s proved them wrong time and time again,” Biden campaign manager Julie Rodriguez wrote in a campaign email regarding the president’s weak polling. “Our Party has never been more united than under President Biden’s and Vice President Harris’s leadership.”
“Our campaign is being smart, strategic, and maximizing the tremendous foundation of existing resources and infrastructure that allowed Democrats to defy expectations in 2022.”
Haley Polling Well Against Biden
Another worry for the Democrats should be that former South Carolina governor and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley polls well against Biden.
Haley has marginal support among Republicans.
The Real Clear Politics average puts her at 4.3% among Republican primary voters; however, the Harvard CAPS/Harris poll puts Haley at 40% compared with 38% for Haley.
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John Rossomando is a senior analyst for Defense Policy and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
